Huron's offense, defense keep Vermilion at bay

Vermilion's adventures in punting made things easy for Huron.

The Tigers used the shaky special teams play of the Sailors to score 20 of their 32 first-half points Friday night, cruising to a 52-6 victory in the season opener at Kalahari Field at Huron Memorial Stadium.

"I just think we had a little too much for them in all phases of the game," said Huron coach Tony Legando. "I don't know that we completely took advantage of the opportunities that they gave us because we struggled with focus and we struggled with consistency.

"People are going to wonder what that guy is talking about when they see us score all those points. We're happy for the kids because they worked hard enough to win, but we know we have to concentrate more, we have to focus more on the fundamentals."

That point came home early as the Tigers were only had a 6-0 lead at the end of the first quarter on John Dusza field goals of 43 and 38 yards, despite starting both possessions inside the Vermilion 25 after botched punt attempts.

Huron, which captured the Win-Oar for the fifth straight year in the renewed rivalry, increased the lead to 18-0 on more tradition scoring drives in the first four minutes of the second quarter.

Brian Bollenbacher capped the first with a 4-yard run and then hit three straight first-down passes to set up an 11-yard Justin Hicks touchdown run.

Then special teams play regained the spotlight as Nyle Olds recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown and Hicks raced 33 yards for a score following a 7-yard Vermilion punt right before the intermission.

The Tigers took a 32-0 lead at the half and had out gained the Sailors by a 287-34 margin in the firs 24 minutes.

"If we could have generated any offense at all, it would have been a much better game in the first half," said Vermilion coach Frank Horvath. "We gave them a couple of short fields on some special teams plays.

"I thought our defense was really playing its heart out, but they were able to convert on some short fields, got the momentum and our kids wore down."

Bollenbacher came out firing in the third quarter, hitting four straight passes for 73 yards, including a 39-yard scoring strike to Jake Hillman to push the lead to 38-0.

Anthony Budka took over at quarterback from Chaz Hansen in the second half and got the Vermilion offense moving. But the senior was unable to convert on a fourth-and-two at the Huron 28 and Hicks answered with three straight carries for 71 yards, including a 12-yard burst to give the Tigers a commanding 45-0 lead.

That was the end of the night for the Huron starters with Bollenbacher going 15 of 28 passing for 212 yards, a touchdown and one interception on a desperation heave on a botched Huron field goal attempt.

"If you think about it, our ones in the second half have one long pass and three or four quick-hitting runs, so I don't think we can evaluate the second half over the long haul," Legando said. "I've been around long enough to know you can't get too excited about this. We have a lot of work to do."

The Sailors finally got on the scoreboard with 5:41 remaining in the game on a 20-yard Bradley Cole run with Dominic Maschari going in from the four for Huron with just under two minutes to play to end the scoring.

"We didn't quit; our kids kept playing," Horvath said. "We just have to generate some offense so our defense isn't out there all the time, and that was the problem in the first half.

"Our kids kept playing, but that's a pretty good football team over there. You got to give Huron credit. They came out, they were prepared and they made adjustments to what we were doing and shut us down."

Hicks led the Huron ground game with 116 yards on nine carries and Maschari chipped in 45 yards on six attempts. Hillman hauled in eight passes for 132 yards while Sean Fantozz had two catches for 30 and Ryan Biddlecombe had two for 28.

"We got this game out of the way and now just have to work harder this week," Bollenbacher said. "We will work hard in practice and we'll come out fine. We just have to concentrate a little better."

Cole finished with 84 yards on nine carries to lead the Sailors with Budka picking up 61 yards on 16 tires. Budka and Hansen combined to go 0-for-3 passing.

Vermilion 0 0 0 6 -- 6

Huron 6 26 13 7 -- 52

H -- John Dusza 43 FG

H -- Dusza 38 FG

H -- Brian Bollenbacher 4 run (kick failed)

H -- Justin Hicks 11 run (run failed)

H -- Nyle Olds blocked punt recovered in the end zone (Anthony Lane kick)

H -- Hicks 33 run (Lane kick)

H -- Jake Hillman 39 pass from Bollenbacher (kick fail)

H -- Hicks 12 run (Lane kick)

V -- Bradley cole 20 run (kick fail)

H -- Dominic Maschari 4 run (Lane kick)

Team Statistics

V H

First Downs 8 24

Run-Pass-Pen 8-0-0 10-11-3

Rush-Yds 48-202 31-210

Yds pass 0 212

Comp-Att-TD-Int 0-3-0-0 15-28-1-1

Pen-Yds 4-35 4-37

Fum-Lost 3-2 0-0

RUSHING

Anthoney Budka 16-61Joe Dillon 5-22, Justin Eitner 6-8, Bradley Cole 9-84, Chaz Hansen 3-(minus) 4, Aaron McCann 2-9, Garrett Shaw 2-5, Ray Riley 3-10, Vermilion player 12-7; Huron--Justin Hicks 9-116, Brian Bollenbahcer 3-5, Dan Nagy 1-0, Mauricio Vazquez 6-22, Kyle Pisano 1-(minus) 2, Dominic Maschair 6-45, Trae Graham 1-16, Corey Lowery 2-10, Colton Roth 2-(minus) 2

Passing -- Chaz Hansen 0-2-0-0-0, Anthony Budka 0-1-0-0-0; Huron--Brian Bollenbacher 15-28-212-1-1

Receiving

Vermilion--none; Huron--Jake Hillman 8-132, Justin Hicks 2-17, Ryan Biddlecombe 2-28, Sean Fantozz 2-30, Brandon Krueger 1-7